Madame Claude

Roughly half a century ago, Western societies possessed a markedly more relaxed attitude towards sexuality than they do today. The intervening decades have seen a cultural pendulum swing back towards a censorious, risk-averse puritanism, making the libertine spirit of the 1970s feel like a distant, almost alien, epoch. This shift in mores is perhaps the most crucial lens through which to view *Madame Claude* (1977),…